1. Priority Claim
This application claims the benefit of priority from the European Patent Office (EPO) Application No. 05023554.8, filed Oct. 27, 2005, which is incorporated herein by reference.
2. Technical Field
The present invention concerns electronic visualization of complex systems. In particular, this invention relates to a computer-implemented method for visualizing a process-product matrix that shows the applications employed at the individual steps or work flow stages of each process in relation to a corresponding product's life-cycle.
3. Related Art
In the manufacturing industry, as well as in the service sector, any product offered or produced by a company involves a series of stages of work, including development, production, marketing, and risk management. In the automotive industry, for example, a series of industrial products such as tires, mudguards, windows, and electronic components are fabricated, bought, sold, and assembled. For each of these products, a series of processes made up of single work steps and complex workflows arise. These processes may include designing, quality management, component testing, warehouse management, component assembly, back-end testing, and many other processes.
Most of these processes are supported by a series of Information Technology (IT) applications. The designing processes may be supported by computer aided design (CAD) software, for example. The same CAD applications are often applied in connection with several products, such as mudguards, hoods, and dashboards. Accordingly, the same application supports a certain process performed in connection with different products. Other applications may be used in connection with different processes on a certain product. For example, specialized software for simulating and evaluating aerodynamics may be employed both for designing and testing mudguards. Other applications may support different processes on different products. In particular, internal communication software or software for stock control, for example, may be applied in connection with a series of different processes on different products.
Similar application-process-product structures also exist in service sector companies, the products of which are typically service-oriented, such as the deposit, lending, or securities businesses within a banking company, for example. The processes performed in connection with these products are also supported by multiple applications, where again each application may support a series of processes for a series of products. Some applications may use information provided by another application or may have an overlap in the data or even in the algorithm used.
When the business processes or subject responsibilities in a company change, the requirements on existing applications also change. When replacing or modifying an individual application used in connection with a certain process, however, it is typically insufficient to look only at its immediate context within this process. Small changes in an application for a certain process may require further corresponding changes where the application is applied in connection with a different process or a different product. Accordingly, changing a company's IT-structure requires a detailed understanding of these complex structures. These structures represent the extremely complex interactions and relationships of numerous applications to countless processes supporting extensive arrays of products, otherwise referred to as the application landscape.
The visualization of an application landscape, particularly the complex structure connecting the processes of products to the respective software applications, provides a useful guide. In big companies, a large number of IT-applications typically are used for supporting processes performed in connection with multiple products. The IT management is particularly difficult when the IT architecture is developed gradually and is highly complex. Accordingly, the resulting visualization of the application landscape becomes large and confusing. When presenting the application landscape on a conventional visual medium, such as a monitor or a reasonably sized print-out, the labelling of the individual processes, products and applications becomes illegibly small. The finite resolution of conventional screen displays makes the visualization task even more difficult.
A need has long existed for a system that facilitates visualizing, reviewing and understanding the interdependent relationships of processes, products and applications as well as addressing other difficulties associated with displaying highly complex structures of this nature in a compact and easily readable manner.